The owner of an apartment complex separates the tenants by income and race. He maintains the sections differently and has different rules for the tenants based by section. The owner? An Orthodox Jew. The tenants treated preferentially? Haredim. The ones treated poorly? Blacks and Hispanics. The location of the apartment complex? Lakewood, New Jersey. The Asbury Park Press reports:

Federal housing officials have charged an embattled realty company here with discrimination, alleging a pattern of racial and religious preferences at Cottage Manor Apartments that benefited the Jewish families who lived there while neglecting minority tenants.

Triple H. Realty LLC of Lakewood and two employees — former apartment manager Vincent Ortiz and current managing property agent Harry Kantor — are accused of violating the Fair Housing Act by attempting to segregate non-Jewish black and Hispanic tenants at the 104-unit, six-building complex on Woehr Avenue, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development reported Wednesday.…

HUD’s current allegations include:

Non-Jewish tenants were forced to transfer to buildings at the back of the property so that Jewish families could move to the better-maintained apartments at the complex’s front end.

Non-Jewish tenants received little to no maintenance compared to the service provided to Jewish tenants.…

The building, home to many Jewish families, has a well-manicured lawn in the front courtyard enclosed by a white picket fence. The buildings with a majority of black and Hispanic tenants have little or no lawn. Their courtyards are not enclosed by a picket fence.

Non-Jewish tenants were told they could not leave toys or personal items on the lawns, but Jewish tenants were permitted to do so.…

HUD’s charge of discrimination was issued against the company, Ortiz and Kantor. No phone numbers could be found Wednesday night for Ortiz and Kantor. Shlomo Kanarek, listed on the property’s 2003 mortgage filing as the managing member of Triple H. Realty, also could not be reached.…

The maximum civil penalty for a first offense charge of discrimination is $11,000, in addition to actual damages for each complaint.

“Providing unequal living facilities based on religion, race, color and/or national origin is simply inconceivable,” said Kim Kendrick, HUD’s assistant secretary for fair housing and equal opportunity. “We are committed to ensuring these families have an equal opportunity for housing in their community.”

As this and so many other stories indicate, Judaism is broken. Judaism used to be a moral light in a depraved, cruel world. But now, under the management of Orthodoxy, it has become a key part of the problem, not a solution to it, a vapid, empty shell lacking in moral substance. Can Judaism be saved? I doubt it.

I’m not excusing the conduct of the Jewish apartment manager or owner here, but the article also lists a non-Jew in collusion with the Jew. I think that, if you’re going to focus on the crime committed, then lay the blame at all feet necessary.

What’s the alternative? Islam and christianity are mere derivatives of Judaism. Secularism? Weaklings like me don’t want to live in a cold, meaningless universe. Perhaps Zen? This is not a rhetorical question. What does the chevra say?

It even existed until some years ago in a public housing project in East Flatbush that I lived in. Literally, black families were herded into one corner of buildings, Jews into two others, and non-Jewish whites into another!

It’s been said that the Housing Authority tried to “keep the peace” in order to stabilize the project, but all it really did was foster resentment and cause hotspots of violence and fear from within.

I don’t know. An argument could be made for either case, depending on the position of the person who personally lived through it.

Perhaps there is a more uncomfortable truth behind this dynamic: that the dysfunctional minority families that live in these places tear up and destroy the very housing and property they’ve been given via public aid. Racist, you say? Don’t bother unless you’ve directly experienced the level of destruction to the premises of public and subsidized housing. As one housing management firm that I used to do some work for told me, “they tear the toilets out of the walls, beat them into pieces smashing holes in the walls, and then call to complain”. It’s an ugly truth, but it’s still the truth.

If ALL the Blacks and ALL the Hispanics were treated the same then that apartment manager is in deep trouble.
He should have figured out which minority familys are decent etc etc because maybe it is a whole family and they dress ‘respectable’ and have a 8-5 job and plaed them in the ‘Jewish’ section which might become a section for those that have jobs.
Apartment manager is no different from nazis who state ALL Jews are….

“the dysfunctional minority families that live in these places tear up and destroy the very housing and property they’ve been given via public aid.”

Why do you assume that all the minority families are dysfunctional and destructive? Why do you assume that all Blacks and Hispanics will behave the same way those in public and subsidized housing would?

Do all white people, including those in Westchester, behave the way white people do in trailer parks? Do all Jews behave the same way that Jews do in Williamsburg or the way Jewish settlers in the city of Hebron do?

There ARE decent, middle class, law abiding Blacks and Hispanics out there that don’t destroy property and then call the landlord for repairs. All Blacks and Hispanics don’t live in public or subsidized housing. Some Blacks and Hispanics DON’T NEED public or subsidised housing. To assume otherwise is racist.

I specifically referred to, “the dysfunctional minority families that live in these places”, didn’t I? Don’t bother placing the race card, my friend. I’ve got more mixed blood in my veins than you could imagine, married into more variations, and have African Americans that are relatives. I’ve been there and done that, and I know the good, the bad, and the ugly about impoverished minority groups, unlike those that pontificate from their social liberal perches.

Where is innocent until proven guilty? These are after all, mere allegations, which, after all, amount to a lack of decent services by a landlord and discrimination, hardly the type of crime with which to condemn a whole religion, especially people who have no involvement at all. And what if the charges are not true?

Perhaps you should learn from SWdom where 10 good person were enough to save a city and each good person was enough to save himself.

I, for one, practice the religion which you believe can not be saved, and I have nothing to do with any apartment building in Lakewood. Why am I responsible for it, evenassuming it happened exactly the way you say?

In addition, itis rbltant racism to assume that just becuaes a person is named Ortiz, he can not think or make moral decsions for himself.

Where is innocent until proven guilty? These are after all, mere allegations, which, after all, amount to a lack of decent services by a landlord and discrimination, hardly the type of crime with which to condemn a whole religion, especially people who have no involvement at all. And what if the charges are not true?

Perhaps you should learn from SWdom where 10 good person were enough to save a city and each good person was enough to save himself.

I, for one, practice the religion which you believe can not be saved, and I have nothing to do with any apartment building in Lakewood. Why am I responsible for it, evenassuming it happened exactly the way you say?

In addition, itis rbltant racism to assume that just becuaes a person is named Ortiz, he can not think or make moral decsions for himself.

A presumption of innocence is something the accused only enjoys in a court of law. Anyway, are you suggesting that ALL nine complainants are lying?

especially people who have no involvement at all

No involvement at all? Kantor was in charge and Kanarek is a managing member of Triple H. Realty. BWAHAHAHAHA! That’s comedy gold.

In addition, itis rbltant racism to assume that just becuaes a person is named Ortiz, he can not think or make moral decsions for himself.

The race card appears! Well played. No one is making any assumptions about Ortiz due to his race — according to HUD vs Triple H. Realty, he was an employee who took direction from his boss, Kantor. Ortiz was the onsite superintendent.

When I referred to persons who are not involved, I meant persons like myself, who have absolutely no involvement in this case at all.

You have condemned the whole religion, and by implication all its practitioners, because one practioner, or perhaps several, discriminate in housing and do not give adequate services.

Yes: I agree. The legal presumption of innoncence is only for court. However, there si another presumption that says you should here both sides of a story before you condemn one side. Frequently, even when there is smoke, the smoke is more grey than black.

The mere fact that nine persons names appaer on a complaint is hardly enoough to not listento the other side. there are many class actions which have been thrown out by judges without a trial, because they lack merit, even though numerous names appear as plaintiffs.

I did not play the race card. Even if Mr. Ortiz is an employee, he allegedly bears responsibility, or else he would have not been named in the complaint. In addition,
taking ord ers is not an excuse for illegal acts, even if he is only an employee.

I still have not heard why you can condemon hundreds of thousands of orthodox Jews because of this case.

What percentage of documented, verifiable slumlords in Central Brooklyn are frumer Yidden?

This is not a difficult thing to check, thanks to the housing violations website on nyc.gov, and the fact that news of whatever horrific conditions in whatever building it is this week are regularly detailed in the daily tabloids.

If it occurs with regularity in Brooklyn, what reason does anyone have to believe that it does not occur across the Verrazano Bridge?

The mere fact that nine persons names appaer on a complaint is hardly enoough to not listento the other side.

Listen to the other side. Please, we already know from the “Torah” of Lakewood what they think of goyim (see above). And you are naive to think that דינא דמלכותא דינא is something that is taken seriously among “חרדים”

דינא דמלכותא דינא is an injunction from the rabbis that apply to all Jews. I do not have to give the benefit of the doubt to “religious” people who willfully disobey the rabbis and the Torah.

Actually, by saying the religion can not be fixed because of this case, you are condemning hundereds of thousands of orthodox Jews, who presumably are following a
broken, unfixable religion.

I am not condoning these actions, assuming they are true, but I have to say, now that I have actually read the complaint, that the charges are actually quite mild, at least compared to somethings that I have seen in court with landlords. (I used to represent tenants in these cases).

Is there a problem with respect for the law. Yes.

But if we are honest, secular society seeems to have the same problem. If you do not believe this, think about all the persons who protest in favor of illegal aliens. The illegal aliens break our laws and yet are hired by otherwise law abiding persons, including middle class persons and up, who hire them as nannys and caretakers. I.e., Zoe Baird.

Or, as documented by the New York times, internet gambling, which Goldman Sachs reccomends as an investment while the Justice Department hold it is illegal.

Or all the shops who have cash businesses and do not pay all their taxes.

As for Dina Dmalchusah Dina, that is a technical term which is much misunderstood and often misused. It has more to do with the validity of documents, kinyanim and judgments of secular courts, rather than any obligation to obey secular law.

The obligation to obey secular law is more based on conceopts of equity, fair dealing, and hakaras hatov, rather than on dina dimalchusa dina.

Co-conspirators? Yes. Because everyone knows full well what’s going on, and who is doing it. And no one says a word (unless the tenants are “observant”, that is.

The problem is particularly acute in minority neighborhoods in Brooklyn that are directly adjacent to “frum” neighborhoods.

They buy up the properties when they were undervalued, never performed maintenance or fixed violations, collect ridiculous rents and/or rent subsidies for sometimes revolting conditions, then kick them out and redo the apartments when the frum people decide they’ve outgrown their present quarters.

And then they are Section 8. Low- to no-interest loans, money-laundering through development/yeshiva funds, improvements made with J51 money, AND a hit-or-miss approach to property taxes afterward.

And then the city ships the first homeless family off to ANOTHER chareidi-run hellhole (Vanderveer Estates, anybody?)

Once again, you seem to want to hold me, and presumably many more like myself, responsible for actions, of which I have no knowledge and of which I do not condone, by persons whom I do not know, have no control over, and do not benefit from.

Why and how I am responsible? You seem to have vastly more knowledge of this than I do. Does that make you responsible?

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